Chapter 13
Chapter thirteen
Hallie had barely gone ten paces, making her way carefully around another tree with a thick shrub at its base, when a hand shot out of the shrub and covered her mouth, stifling her squeal of surprise.
She brought the shotgun up on instinct and turned, aiming it at the head and shoulders of her attacker, only to halt the motion halfway through her swing when she recognised Girard.
Girard moved his hand from her mouth and brushed her cheek, giving her a slightly lopsided smile.
One side of his face was bruised, eye almost swollen shut, skin scraped red and raw.
The injuries looked bad, but she knew from experience that they were most likely superficial and would heal quickly.
It was one advantage of being hochlen. As well as the damage to his face, she could also see traces of dirt on his clothing that hadn’t been there earlier.
All surface issues. There were no gunshot wounds.
The governor’s men had missed their target.
She drew a deep, shuddering breath in, relief coursing through her, heart thudding in her ears, and settled into the centre of the shrub with him.
There was a hollow just big enough for the two of them, if they were happy to rub shoulders.
And Hallie didn’t mind. From the way Girard was sitting, resting against her, she didn’t think he minded the closeness, either.
“Six of them,” Girard said, voice almost soundless next to her ear. “Or there were.”
“Two down,” Hallie confirmed. “Two in that direction. Two over there.” She pointed.
“Remarkable,” Girard said, with a smile that drew heat to her face. “I tried talking. They weren’t listening. I ran and lost them for a bit, but they are determined to find me. There was one in charge, seemed the most dangerous.”
“Vinny. Went that way,” Hallie told him, pointing again.
“Rhodda?”
“Hiding in a tree.” Hallie frowned. “Not sure where.”
“Take the other two out first, then tackle Vinny?” Girard suggested.
“That was my plan,” Hallie agreed. She took a closer look at him. He still had his gun, secure in the holster at his hip. Like her, it seemed he hadn’t wanted to use it and draw attention. “Weapon?”
He raised his fist, wrapped around what looked like a sturdy bit of tree branch.
It would probably be more effective than the shotgun she was holding.
He lifted his brows and pointed out of the shrub.
Asking her if she was ready to go, she realised.
She nodded. As much as she’d have liked to stay and sit with Girard for a while, now wasn’t the time.
She followed Girard out of the shrub and in the general direction that Blondie and Red had gone.
It wasn’t that difficult to find them. Hallie would have managed without Girard as a guide.
She just had to follow the low-voiced muttering and cursing that the two men were exchanging.
She and Girard managed to creep up very close behind the men and then, in a move smooth enough that it felt coordinated, she and Girard rose up and swung their respective weapons, connecting solidly with the heads of the two men in front of them.
Hallie couldn’t help her reflexive wince at the sound of the shotgun barrel connecting with Blondie’s head in a dull thud.
She hoped she hadn’t done any permanent damage.
She just wanted him out of the way long enough to let her and Girard, with Rhodda, escape.
With Red and Blondie unconscious on the ground, Girard spared a moment to tie their wrists and ankles together with lengths of rough rope. He grinned briefly when he saw Hallie’s surprise. “Took the rope out of one of the ATVs while they were in the woods,” he told her.
“Good thinking.” Hallie approved. He handed a coil of rope to her, and she looped it around the holster she wore, hoping she might have a chance to use it.
“The others are this way,” Girard said, and led the way back into the forest.
As they walked, Girard making almost no noise, Hallie feeling clumsy by comparison, she wondered how anyone found their way about the forest without tracking magic.
After all the turns and changes of direction, she was completely, thoroughly lost. The trees all looked almost the same to her.
There might be different foliage around different trunks, but that was as much as she could tell.
She shivered, imagining Blondie and Red waking up, managing to free themselves, and then stumbling further into the forest rather than back out to the road.
They could get so badly lost they might never find their way out.
It was a moment of sympathy only. She was quite sure the men would have shot her just as easily as Shorty had shot at her earlier, accidentally killing his accomplice.
Then Girard halted in front of her, and crouched down. She settled next to him, and heard the sound of voices, coming closer.
“What in hells were you doing out here?” That was Vinny, sounding annoyed, with some of his self-control worn away.
“Hiding.” The voice that answered could only belong to Rhodda, unless another woman had somehow found herself out in the forest. Hallie closed her eyes briefly, guilt stabbing her.
She’d left Rhodda and the other woman had been found.
But she wasn’t defeated. There had been a sarcastic bite to the woman’s words that made Hallie’s brows lift, more surprised by the tone than the fact the two men had, apparently, found Rhodda.
Vinny and his possible brother were closely connected with the governor, who seemed to terrify Rhodda.
It was possible her fear was reserved for the man himself, and not his underlings.
“You were a long way from the crash,” the other man commented. “How did you get so far into the forest with those injuries?”
“None of your business.” There was a hard edge to Rhodda’s voice that Hallie approved of. A tough woman. Even having been caught by two of the governor’s men, she was holding her own.
The group came into view. Rhodda was walking in front of the two men, her head down, hands by her sides.
She was moving slowly, with a hint of stiffness in her stride.
The painkiller might be wearing off, or climbing into and out of a tree had jolted her injury.
She was human, after all, and that meant more pain and a longer healing time.
Vinny and his perhaps-brother were walking side-by-side behind Rhodda, the men carrying their guns with the muzzles pointing to the ground, as if they didn’t expect to need them to keep Rhodda under control.
And perhaps that was right. Despite the defiance in her voice, Rhodda didn’t look as if she was in a state to try anything.
Several days out in the forest, with no proper nutrition and an open wound, and it was no wonder she looked exhausted and worn down.
Girard’s hand on Hallie’s shoulder made her start in surprise, but she managed not to make a sound. He pressed down. Wanting her to stay where she was. She scowled at him, quite sure she wouldn’t like what he had planned.
He moved a little distance away from her and then rose to his feet, in full view of the trio coming towards him.
No, Hallie definitely didn’t like this plan.
He might be wearing body armour, but he wasn’t bulletproof.
She had an impulse to tackle him to the ground and drag him out of sight of the guns.
But that would reveal her presence, and take away the tiny advantage that they had, so she stayed where she was.
“Stay where you are,” the second man said, gun lifting and aimed directly at Girard.
Rhodda made a noise that sounded like pure surprise, and moved a few paces away from the two men, out of their immediate reach, back pressed against the thick trunk of the nearest tree.
Vinny had his weapon raised, too, also directed at Girard.
For his part, Girard stayed where he was, hands by his sides, apparently relaxed and at ease in the middle of a dense forest with two guns pointed at him.
He was wearing his badge, Hallie realised, hung around his neck on a chain.
She was sure that hadn’t been there when he’d found her, but as the chain and badge caught the light, making him stand out among the shadows, she realised why.
“You’ve got some nerve,” Vinny said, voice a low growl. “Hand over your weapon.”
“I don’t think so,” Girard answered. His voice was cool, with a touch of hochlen arrogance that Hallie wasn’t used to hearing from him. “Why don’t you lower your weapons and we can talk?”
“Talk?” Vinny sneered. “I don’t have to listen to you. Come on. The governor, Jonah, will want to talk to you.”
“And I would very much like to talk to him, too, but not at the end of a weapon,” Girard said, in the same tone. “Let’s arrange a time and place, shall we?”
Vinny’s lip curled in distaste and he shook his head. “You’re not getting it, are you? I thought you inbred elite were meant to be smarter than us common folk? He’s not going to do what you want. This is our place, not yours.”
“Let’s just kill him,” the other man said.
“Not yet,” Vinny said. He was still angry, Hallie realised, and wondered if that was a normal state of being for him.
He was watching Girard, jaw tight and a line between his brows that suggested he was still in control of his feelings, and also thinking hard.
“Why don’t you come with us?” he suggested, his tone oh-so-reasonable. “We can go see Jonah together.”
“No, thanks,” Girard answered. “Let’s go to New Hope instead. As much as I want to talk to Jonah, I also want to talk to the people there.”